French president to try to save TGV train factory: PM

French President Francois Hollande will intervene this week to try to save the factory that made the country’s first high-speed TGV train and is now under threat of closure, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Sunday. Trainmaker Alstom announced this week that it would cease production in the eastern city of Belfort, a symbol of French industrial prowess that produced Alstom’s first steam train in 1880. Alstom said it would centralise its train production at a site 200 kilometres (125 miles) further north in Alsace and promised to offer the 400 workers in Belfort other jobs.